Updating my RAM config.!?

Hi group!
I have Win98se, I'm looking into updating to at least Win ME, maybe
later to WinXP?

I now have; 1x 512MB+1x256MB ram installed=736MB, 184pin DDR-266, PC210
in a MSI-KM4M-L. mobo,= compatible with 2x 184pin DDR333/266/200 SCRAM
ram- max 2GB

1-40GB HDD
AMD Duron 1.4- processor
1- CD-RW
1- Floppy
4-USB ports
Dial-up 56K modem)
I would like to get more RAM installed,
but I would have to go with;
2x1GB of 184pin, DDR-333, PC2700.
My questions, what do you think?;

1- Can I do that with out any problem?- just replace what I have in
there and install the 2 new sticks of ram?

2- Do I have to do anything else? like changing anything in the BIOS?
I hope not! It has been many,many moons since I played around in there.

Any help, info or feedback will be much appreciated!
BN

wrote...
I have Win98se, I'm looking into updating to at least Win ME, maybe
later to WinXP?

I now have; 1x 512MB+1x256MB ram installed=736MB, 184pin DDR-266, PC210
in a MSI-KM4M-L. mobo,= compatible with 2x 184pin DDR333/266/200 SCRAM
ram- max 2GB

1-40GB HDD
AMD Duron 1.4- processor
1- CD-RW
1- Floppy
4-USB ports
Dial-up 56K modem)
I would like to get more RAM installed, but I would have to go with; 2x1GB
of 184pin, DDR-333, PC2700.
My questions, what do you think?;

1- Can I do that with out any problem?- just replace what I have in
there and install the 2 new sticks of ram?

2- Do I have to do anything else? like changing anything in the BIOS?
I hope not! It has been many,many moons since I played around in there.

Should be able to simply install the RAM and restart the computer.

I wouldn't bother with Win ME if Win98 is working. ME may not work for you.
Go directly to XP whenever you are ready to do so. However, that 40 GB HD
is marginal for XP (depending on your apps & data requirements), so a new HD
would be a good idea at that time. XP can take up 10+ GB on its own...

wrote:
Hi group!
I have Win98se, I'm looking into updating to at least Win ME, maybe
later to WinXP?

I now have; 1x 512MB+1x256MB ram installed=736MB, 184pin DDR-266, PC210
in a MSI-KM4M-L. mobo,= compatible with 2x 184pin DDR333/266/200 SCRAM
ram- max 2GB

1-40GB HDD
AMD Duron 1.4- processor
1- CD-RW
1- Floppy
4-USB ports
Dial-up 56K modem)
I would like to get more RAM installed,
but I would have to go with;
2x1GB of 184pin, DDR-333, PC2700.
My questions, what do you think?;

1- Can I do that with out any problem?- just replace what I have in
there and install the 2 new sticks of ram?

2- Do I have to do anything else? like changing anything in the BIOS?
I hope not! It has been many,many moons since I played around in there.

Any help, info or feedback will be much appreciated!
BN


Win98 has a 512MB limit (for trouble free operation).

By modifying one setting, you can use up to 1GB of memory.
(MaxFileCache, system.ini). This works around a problem with
Vcache, whatever that is.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912

[vcache]
MaxFileCache=524288

With over 1GB of physical memory present, the Vcache change wouldn't
be enough. You can tell Win98 to ignore memory, using

[386enh]
MaxPhysPage=40000 (hexidecimal, means throw away anything above 1GB)

And that second option only makes sense, if you're dual booting,
and the second OS can handle the 2GB of memory without an issue.

If you update to WinXP, it can handle 2GB (I'm doing that right now).

I don't know what limits WinME might have.

When buying your 1GB DDR memory, do not buy them from Ebay. Many Ebay
sellers, sell "high density" 1GB modules. If you buy a 1GB DDR module
from Kingston or Crucial, or one of the other name brand companies,
they'll sell you "low density" memory, made with 64Mx8 chips. (The
high density modules use 128Mx4 chips.) If you stay away from Ebay
when purchasing your 2x1GB kit, you should be OK. An Ebay advert
may say "Samsung" in big letters, but that is the brand of the
memory chips - the actual DIMM is "nameless" and "generic" and to
be avoided.

Faster memory can be used in slower applications. For example, a
DDR400 stick, can be run at DDR333, DDR266 and so on. If you use
the search engine on Crucial.com , you might see some faster memory
listed as being an option. Faster memory won't help your performance
(since the motherboard is the speed limiter), but if you ever want
to move that memory to another motherboard that can actually run
at DDR400, you'd get a benefit at that point.

The only exception to that I can think of, is situations where the
BIOS does not have manual control options. There is one motherboard
for example, which has built-in graphics. The build-in graphics
doesn't like it if the clock speed is too high. If you plug in
DDR400 memory in that particular motherboard, it crashes the machine.
In that case, you really have to buy exactly PC2700 (DDR333) memory, to
compensate for the fact that the BIOS is missing the ability to
set "DDR333" in the BIOS window. Many other motherboards have
sufficient adjustments and thoughtful design, to avoid that problem.
So for most motherboards, the faster memory will work fine. For
that particular motherboard, it is a puzzle why the BIOS sets
the memory to DDR400 speed, when the BIOS designers must know
it is unstable at that speed. Their design decision is dumb, and
they chose not to fix it.

I have a copy of your motherboard manual, and settings such
as "DRAM Clock" and "DDR Voltage", can be used if there
are problems. So your motherboard does have some manual
settings available.

Paul

Thanks a lot for ALL that good info!

It looks like I be better of to bring the memory back to 512MB from the
736MB?
(that is what the System Settings states
I have in there now?- don't ad up)!, as long as I'm running Win98se or
WinMe and wait with the upgrading to 2GB *after I get a WinXP installed.
I have been having some problems with popups telling me that "You don't
have enough memory to run this program and to uninstal some programs and
try again"!

Thanks again, everyone, for all the good info!
BN

wrote:
Thanks a lot for ALL that good info!

It looks like I be better of to bring the memory back to 512MB from the
736MB?
(that is what the System Settings states
I have in there now?- don't ad up)!, as long as I'm running Win98se or
WinMe and wait with the upgrading to 2GB *after I get a WinXP installed.
I have been having some problems with popups telling me that "You don't
have enough memory to run this program and to uninstal some programs and
try again"!

Thanks again, everyone, for all the good info!
BN


If you are currently using Win98, and have installed 768MB of memory,
then I'd recommend editing system.ini and adding a line to limit
Vcache. (MaxFileCache= , where the number should be less than
512MB or 524288.) This should not compromise the operation
of the computer.

I had problems with my motherboard, but it turned out after some
additional experiments, to be an unrelated hardware problem. If
you use the MaxFileCache thing, it is possible those popups
will go away.

Paul

wrote:
Hi group!
I have Win98se, I'm looking into updating to at least Win ME, maybe
later to WinXP?

Don't bother with ME. There is nothing to gain compared to 98SE except
some minor bells and whistles and a *lot* more problems. "Upgrading" ME
back to 98SE was very common years ago, same as with Vista back to XP
now. I have an ancient Dell laptop that was shipped with ME, the
previous owner said Dell sent him 98SE for free after just one
tech-support call. It WAS that bad!

I've had 3 different computers with pretty-much mainstream hardware that
would fail installation with ME that were running 98 just fine. All 3
then had Win 2000 install without a hitch.

Go with XP instead. If 98SE does what you need now, XP Home would
probably do just fine for you. XP Home costs about half what XP
Professional does. The only problem is that you'll have to do some
hunting for it as MS quit selling it. Ebay has a lot of it.

Don't bother with Vista, your hardware will disappoint you severely.


I now have; 1x 512MB+1x256MB ram installed=736MB, 184pin DDR-266, PC210
in a MSI-KM4M-L. mobo,= compatible with 2x 184pin DDR333/266/200 SCRAM
ram- max 2GB

1-40GB HDD

You *can* put XP and a few apps on a 40g HD, but don't be surprised when
you run out of space. Your drive is also Parallel ATA (wide data cable)
and is going to be another "old stock" item as technology has moved to
Serial ATA which uses a little round cable.

AMD Duron 1.4- processor
1- CD-RW
1- Floppy
4-USB ports
Dial-up 56K modem)
I would like to get more RAM installed,
but I would have to go with;
2x1GB of 184pin, DDR-333, PC2700.
My questions, what do you think?;

1- Can I do that with out any problem?- just replace what I have in
there and install the 2 new sticks of ram?

2- Do I have to do anything else? like changing anything in the BIOS?
I hope not! It has been many,many moons since I played around in there.

Any help, info or feedback will be much appreciated!
BN



Older motherboards can be a bear when it comes to buying 'big' memory.
Just because it says DDR of some speed, there are different flavors as
in low or high density, single-sided or double.. ad nauseam. You don't
want to buy memory that won't work, especially since DDR (being
obsolete) prices are considerably more than DDR2 (almost double!) Buying
from Kingston.com or Crucial.com is pretty much a guarantee that it will
work if you order by spec'ing your motherboard. Unfortunately, neither
lists your MSI-KM4M-L.... but googling that brought up that it's also
known as a MS-6734

http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...6734%20(KM4M-L)

No luck at Kingston from their "memory locator", but their search came
up with this.
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...266X64C 25/1G

You've already had sticks in both memory slots, so you shouldn't have to
deal with dust/crud in the empty slot. That also proves that both slots
do work (a not-uncommon occurance).


As far as BIOS goes, you probably won't have to change anything with the
above RAM, but both Kingston and Crucial tech support will work with you
if perchance there is a problem. The default BIOS setting for RAM is
usually "AUTO" or "BY SPID" which means that the motherboard reads a
special identifier chip on the RAM to set itself up.

After installing the new RAM, the motherboard will probably come up in
the BIOS screen automatically or will tell you to "enter setup". This is
necessary for the RAM amount to register in BIOS. All you have to do is
"save and exit".

If you are going to go with the 2 gigs of RAM while still using 98SE, be
aware that there's a high probability that you may find it constantly
rebooting afterwards. 98SE wasn't "set up" for more than 384 megs and
needs registry tweaks to fix problems.

*Definitely* read:

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/memmgmt.php

Make the registry changes BEFORE doing the 2 gigs!

"Paul" wrote:

If you update to WinXP, it can handle 2GB (I'm doing that right now).

Actually, Win XP can address 4 GB. It can use up to 2 GB for the OS and 2
GB for apps. Physical limitations in current computer systems, e.g., 512 MB
Video RAM, etc., make usable RAM more like 3-3.5 GB, depending on the
system.

wrote...

It looks like I be better of to bring the memory back to 512MB from the
736MB?
(that is what the System Settings states
I have in there now?- don't ad up)!, as long as I'm running Win98se or
WinMe and wait with the upgrading to 2GB *after I get a WinXP installed.
I have been having some problems with popups telling me that "You don't
have enough memory to run this program and to uninstal some programs and
try again"!

You may have a video card that uses some of the RAM...

AFAIK, you can put more RAM in the system, but Win98 just won't be able to
use it. When you upgrade to XP, install the 2 GB BEFORE you install XP.

Win98 still has the underpinnings of a 16-bit OS. It will "run out of RAM"
well before all the physical RAM is used because of the inefficient way it
allocates resources. I used to know a few tricks to help it, but they've
been dumped from my brain a long time ago! An aftermarket memory manager
like QEMM386 from Quarterdeck Software (if you can find an old copy) will go
a long way to help manage the memory.

You'd be better off to upgrade to XP as soon as feasible, unless you run
some apps that you KNOW won't run on XP.

JR Weiss wrote:
"Paul" wrote:
If you update to WinXP, it can handle 2GB (I'm doing that right now).

Actually, Win XP can address 4 GB. It can use up to 2 GB for the OS and 2
GB for apps. Physical limitations in current computer systems, e.g., 512 MB
Video RAM, etc., make usable RAM more like 3-3.5 GB, depending on the
system.


That was a "proof of the pudding" statement, more than a technical
upper limit :-)

Paul

In article ,
lid says...
wrote...
I have Win98se, I'm looking into updating to at least Win ME, maybe
later to WinXP?

I now have; 1x 512MB+1x256MB ram installed=736MB, 184pin DDR-266, PC210
in a MSI-KM4M-L. mobo,= compatible with 2x 184pin DDR333/266/200 SCRAM
ram- max 2GB

1-40GB HDD
AMD Duron 1.4- processor
1- CD-RW
1- Floppy
4-USB ports
Dial-up 56K modem)
I would like to get more RAM installed, but I would have to go with; 2x1GB
of 184pin, DDR-333, PC2700.
My questions, what do you think?;

1- Can I do that with out any problem?- just replace what I have in
there and install the 2 new sticks of ram?

2- Do I have to do anything else? like changing anything in the BIOS?
I hope not! It has been many,many moons since I played around in there.

Should be able to simply install the RAM and restart the computer.

I wouldn't bother with Win ME if Win98 is working. ME may not work for you.
Go directly to XP whenever you are ready to do so. However, that 40 GB HD
is marginal for XP (depending on your apps & data requirements), so a new HD
would be a good idea at that time. XP can take up 10+ GB on its own...



A clean install of XP is only 1.5GB. Obviously, if you include apps etc
then it's going to increase, but any O/S will use require more space
when it comes to adding apps, but then how long is a piece of string?
It really depends upon the user requirements.

I'm not going against the idea of a larger HD. I think it's a good idea
too, considering what you can get for the money these days. Just
questioning your 10GB statement.

--
Pete Ives
Remove All_stRESS before sending me an email